Malala book launch called off - organisers

World / 28 January 2014, 3:18pm

A customer looks at a newly published book about Pakistani teenager Malala Yousafzai at a local bookshop in Islamabad on October 8, 2013. Picture: BK Bangash

A launch ceremony for education activist Malala Yousafzai's book at a university in her native Pakistan was cancelled after pressure from the provincial government, organisers and officials said on Tuesday.

Malala survived a Taliban assassination attempt in the country's restive northwest in 2012 and has become a global champion for the struggle for all children to go to school.

An event to launch her memoir “I am Malala” at the Area Study Centre of Peshawar University on Monday was called off after police refused to provide security, organisers told AFP.

She had not been due to attend in person.

“We were forced to cancel it. We were pressurised by provincial ministers and university vice chancellor,” Sarfaraz Khan, the Area Study Centre director, told AFP.

“When I refused to follow this illegal order (to cancel the event) police refused to provide security.”

Peshawar is the capital of the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which has borne the brunt of Pakistan's bloody homegrown Islamist insurgency.

Khan said he received numerous phone calls from two provincial ministers, followed by the university vice-chancellor, registrar and senior police officers.

The government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is led by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf party of former cricketer Imran Khan.